


Wedding Goggles

by peetasblueyes



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Tumblr: promptsinpanem, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 14:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5052118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peetasblueyes/pseuds/peetasblueyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn’t even supposed to be there. But when a beautiful dark-haired girl rushes past him, choking on her tears, he couldn’t just leave.</p><p>Written for Prompts in Panem: round 7, day 3 (modern locations- wedding)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding Goggles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ellembee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellembee/gifts).



Her sniffles echo inside the small confines of the bathroom stall. He didn’t mean to follow her all the way into the women’s bathroom. He just wanted to make sure she wasn’t completely falling apart.

 

“Hey, you alright in there?” He knocks gently onto the door of her stall. Her soft whimpers come to a sudden halt.

 

“Unless you like to wear men’s shoes and have a naturally deep voice, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed in here.” Her voice carries a slightly nasal tone. A pair of black heels peep from underneath the stall gap. They bounce up and down apprehensively.

 

He chuckles at her ability to make sassy comments even through tears. She must not be quite as upset as he thought. “I know, I know. But I promise, I’m not a creep. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

 

“I’m-  _hic_ \- I’m fine. I’m fine!” she stubbornly insists, hiccupping incessantly.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come and cry out here?” he continues to prod. “I’ve been told I’m an excellent listener, and hugger, if that’s what you want.”

 

“Uhmm, that’s great. Thanks, but I don’t actually cry in front of people.” She blows her nose and makes a disgusted noise. “Or cry at all for that matter. God, this is so gross.”

 

“Hey, everyone gets snotty when they cry. It happens.” He tenderly places his hand against the metal door, attempting to coax her out of hiding. “Listen, you don’t have to tell me why you’re crying if you don’t want to. But I won’t let you spend the whole night in here. There’s a beautiful wedding reception you’re missing.”

 

“That’s part of the reason why I’m stuck in here in the first place,” she mumbles through her sniffles.

 

“Okay, well…” He shifts from side to side in thought. “Well, then when you come out, we won’t go to the reception. We’ll do something, somewhere else. I just don’t think hiding away in a bathroom stall is going to help anyone.”

 

There’s silence. After a minute, he patiently knocks on the door. “Please? You won’t regret it, I promise.”

 

He can hear her huffing, but soon the door creaks open slowly. Her silver eyes are rimmed red and her cheeks are splotchy. The tip of her nose is pink, irritated from the tissues that wiped  against it, and she’s still wearing a slight scowl.

 

“There we go.” He smiles and hands her his handkerchief. She delicately dabs it on her eyes and warily presses it against her nose, but decides not to blow and hands it back. After tucking it into his pocket, he pops his arm out for her, bent at the elbow. “Ready to  _not_  go back to the reception now?”

 

“I guess…” She hesitates a few seconds before linking her arm into the crook. “Just because you got me out of the bathroom, doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with you. I don’t hook up at weddings. It’s too cliché,” she firmly warns him.

 

He laughs at her forwardness. It’s refreshing. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t expecting anything anyways. I’m Peeta.”

 

“I’m Katniss,” she says. He catches a small glimpse of her smile before she shyly fixes her gaze onto the marble floor. But that little peek was all he needed to know that he was a goner.

 

“So, Katniss, what do you want to do?” They step out of the ladies’ room and awkwardly stand in the middle of the tight corridor. The music from the reception is loud enough to hear clearly from where they stand. She dreadfully looks down the hallway.

 

“I would really appreciate getting drunk right now,” she smirks at him. She seems in such a better mood already.

 

“Well, lucky for you, I happen to know somewhere that has an open bar right now.” Peeta guides them back into the ballroom. When Katniss pouts at the idea of going into the reception, he tries to reassure her. “Don’t worry. We’ll only be in there a second and then we’ll come right back out. You do still want to get drinks right?”

 

She nods eagerly and they sneakily slip inside.

 

* * *

Peeta had successfully stolen a large bottle of champagne and two glasses from the bar, which they drank to the bottom. While he was getting the drinks, Katniss had decided to save all the single girls the agony of fighting against each other and snatched the bouquet. It was a beautiful bouquet of peonies, pink and orange, surrounded with small sweet peas. Peeta could see her eyes light up when she walked off with the bundle of flowers. She looked just as beautiful as the bride.

 

They snuck into an open ballroom, completely empty excluding a marvelous grand piano. Peeta immediately sat on the bench. “Man, I haven’t played in years. I wonder if I still can.” His fingers skim the top of the glossy keys.

 

“Try,” she challenges him.

 

So he began playing the only song he knows from memory,  _Clair de Lune_. His fingers glide delicately across the keys and lightly release the gentle sound. It’s irresistibly mesmerizing and he knows it. When he finishes, Katniss is staring at him in disbelief. She obviously hadn’t expected his skill to surpass anything other than chopsticks.

 

To counter his talent, Katniss argues that she can sing opera. Confidently shaking out her dark hair from its intricate updo, she loudly belches out in a foreign language Peeta is ninety percent sure she’s making up. Nevertheless, he sits through the whole “song”, stifling his laughter. Her voice is enchanting no matter what language she sings in anyways.

 

“Okay, so I don’t actually know how to sing opera,” Katniss admits after she finishes, plopping down next to him on the piano stool and gasping for breath.

 

“I couldn’t even tell,” he teases lightheartedly. Her tongue darts to wet the corner of her lip and he gazes at the movement, longingly. He imagines what it would be like for his tongue to graze against her plush lips. Her tongue would playfully tangle into his. She would taste like champagne. The longer he stared at her, the stronger his desire elevated.

 

Katniss dips her finger into the remnants of her drink and twirls it lightly around the rim, releasing a soft high-pitch note. “Stop,” she says, without breaking her gaze on the glass.

 

“Stop what?”

 

“Stop staring at me like that,” she sighs, exerting all her concentration onto the glass edge, refusing to look at Peeta.

 

He clears his throat and downs the last sip of his drink. “I’m not staring at you in any particular way.” Once Peeta realizes how closely they are sitting together, the bench seems to shrink down even more. Were they really sitting this close before? There’s absolutely no space between his dress pants and the hem of her dress. Their arms knock against each other. It could be so easy to just slide his hand slowly and interlock with her fingers.

 

“But you are staring,” she replies flatly. “And I bet you’re thinking about how much you want to kiss me right now.” There’s a slight edge to her tone. It’s not harsh, but he can hear it.

 

“Ha, you wish I would kiss you right now,” Peeta scoffs, trying to cover up the slight blush that spreads over his cheeks. When Katniss finally turns her head to face him, he’s too embarrassed to make eye contact. He immediately stares down to the piano keys and taps his fingers lightly on C and D, back and forth.

 

“Ooh. If I wanted you to kiss me, I could get you to.” She nudges his shoulder and his fingers slip off the keys, producing a cacophony of jumbled notes.

 

“No you couldn’t…” He cocks his eyebrow, daring her to try. Oh, how much he wishes she would prove him wrong. Instead, she just smiles at him sympathetically and shakes her head.

 

“You’re a boy,” Katniss whispers wistfully. There’s a hint of regret flashing through her eyes as she flutters her lashes, fixing her gaze on Peeta. She smiles again, trying to lighten the mood back to the playful banter it was.

 

Peeta roughly rubs his hand down the nape of his neck. She was right. As someone part of the male population, his thoughts are usually driven by whatever his dick felt, especially after a few drinks. His shoulders slump in defeat.

 

“So, I’m assuming you haven’t always had this rule?” Peeta steers the conversation in another direction. “About hooking up at weddings?” he clarifies.

 

“Well, here’s the thing. Those big, romantic moments…” Katniss bites the corner of her lip, formulating her next words. “They’re great when they happen, but they’re not real.”

 

“Interesting,” he nods, contemplating her theory.

 

“It’s like wedding goggles. When you’re single and sitting at the reception, you feel obligated to find someone to spend the rest of the night with. You feel lonely, because you’re alone in a room crowded with couples. You’re celebrating the announcement of your friend’s commitment to their significant other and you can’t help but wonder if you’ll ever find that,” she continues to ramble on.

 

She must be nervous, because Peeta can’t help but notice how she’s beginning to fiddle with her hair and words tumble out of her mouth uncontrollably.

 

“So instead, we cling on to the possibility of a new romance with someone we hardly know. It won’t work out, but we think ‘ _just for tonight_ ’. You dance, you kiss, you sleep together.” She presses her lips together thinly, twisting into a dejected smirk. “Then you wake up the next morning and you can’t figure out what was real and not.”

 

“Because of the wedding goggles?” Peeta asks, understanding the general idea.

 

“Exactly!” Katniss exclaims, throwing her arms apart into the air to emphasize her point.

 

He laughs at her enthusiasm and stops when a thought crosses his mind. “Is there any way I can convince you that this–” he gestures his fingers between him and Katniss, “could be real?”

 

“I don’t think so…” Her smile fades and voice trails off. Peeta studies her face, searching for a smidgen of hope in her expression. She brushes her fingers through her hair, untangling the dark curls into loose waves.

 

“I like you, Katniss.” The words spill out unintentionally. There’s no taking it back now.

 

“You don’t even know me.” Her response makes Peeta flinch. But again, she’s not wrong. “You want to know why I was crying?”

 

It’s surprising to him at first. Katniss didn’t seem like the type to open up about her vulnerabilities. “You don’t have to tell me. But if you want, I’m here to listen,” Peeta encourages her to decide.

 

She inhales a deep breath and smooths out the bottom of her dress. “Th- the groom, Gale Hawthorne? He’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were like five. We grew up with each other. Same school, same neighborhood. Somehow we ended up going to different colleges and then, boom. Thirteen years of friendship kinda fades away into the background.” She licks her dry lips. Her gaze fixates on nothing in particular, just staring into the open ballroom space. “It wasn’t so bad. We hardly saw each other, but when we came home for breaks, it felt normal. Until he stopped coming back. Three years flew by and suddenly I don’t know who this guy is anymore. Everything’s changed. Nothing was the same.”

 

“Change can be tough. Especially if you remain the same and everything around you seems to be shifting,” Peeta agrees. Friendships after high school aren’t easy to maintain. He can’t remember the last time he talked to someone from back home. All his current friends are either from college or work.

 

“Exactly. Anyways, a few months ago I find this letter in my mailbox. It’s a ‘save the date’ invitation and I can’t figure out who it’s from. None of my friends are engaged or even have serious relationships. So I open it up. It’s from Gale and Madge,” Katniss scoffs, trying to blink back her tears and smiling weakly. “I didn’t know his relationship had gotten this serious. He never even introduced her to me. Gale used to joke that his best friend would need to approve of his future wife. I know we were kids when we made that promise, but….”

 

Her voice starts to crack a little and it’s evident that she will start crying again soon. Her teeth catches her bottom lip, biting down hard, and blinking back inevitable tears. Peeta slings his arm around her shoulder and rubs her arm soothingly. “So you’re upset, because you’re in love with him?” He tries to be understanding and, unfortunately, that’s the best conclusion he can come up with.

 

“Oh my god, no! I love Gale like a brother.” Katniss wrinkles her nose, glaring at him as if he asked her if she had two heads or something. Now he’s just confused. “I’m upset, because I miss those days with my best friend. When we would talk every night. When you know everything about each other. He’s basically a stranger to me now. You take your eyes off something that’s always been there, and the next minute it’s just a memory. One day you take a moment to look at your surroundings and realize, it’s all different. People are constantly coming and going. No one ever stays.”

 

“Some people do.” Peeta wants to convince her that she isn’t alone. “Change is apart of life and we all have to learn to adapt to it. It happens to everyone. It’s all about making new experiences and rebuilding yourself from that.”

 

It’s silent for a while. Her face contorts into a frown, trying to understand the insight behind his advice. Then her expression shifts to a thin smile when she begins to nod to herself, as if a light bulb went off. “You’re right,” she murmurs so quietly Peeta wouldn’t have been able to hear it if they weren’t so close. Katniss leans in even closer to his face. His heart thumps, his hands get clammy. Is this really happening?

 

Then she halts at the faint sound of tiny footsteps clacking against the tile floor. They both break eye contact to search the room. It looks empty. Peeta instantly turns back to Katniss, hoping to go right back to where they left off. Katniss wasn’t convinced, though. She hastily gets up from the piano chair and walks around until she finds something.

 

Someone, actually.

 

She was too small to see from behind the grand piano. Her blonde hair is shoulder length and curled into bouncy ringlets. On top of her head is a flower crown, tied securely with a purple ribbon. She looks young, not any older than five or six years.

 

“Hey there,” Katniss squats in front of the child and smiles genuinely. “What’s your name?”

 

The little girl beams back shyly. Her chubby pink cheeks reach the bottom of her eyes. “I’m Elise.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Elise. I’m Katniss and that’s Peeta.” She points in his direction and he bashfully waves. “You look pretty, I like your dress.”

 

“Thank you,” Elise blushes, twirling in her white gown. “I was the flower girl today.”

 

“You were? That sounds like lots of fun.” Katniss is great with the kid, to Peeta’s surprise.

 

“You have pretty flowers too!” She points to the stolen bouquet sitting on top of the piano. Katniss smiles sheepishly. “Did you two get married today?” Elise giggles behind her tiny hands. Her question shocks them both. They turn to look at each other with confused looks. Peeta shrugs and gets up from the piano to join their little circle.

 

“I’m afraid not. Katniss and I just met today.” He crouches down to the little flower girl’s height.

 

She huffs disappointedly, moving her head back and forth to stare at them both. “But you love each other?” Elise tilts her head and scrunches up her nose.

 

“N-no, Elise. Like Peeta said, we met today,” Katniss clarifies, maintaining her gentle smile. “What makes you think that?”

 

“Well, you were going to kiss!” She taps her hand onto her pouted lips to emphasize her point. Then she twists her head to face Peeta and sticks her finger at him. “And you look at her the same way my new uncle did when he saw my auntie today.”

 

He chuckles nervously at her accusation. “Isn’t there somewhere you need to be? With your parents, maybe?” It’s a lame way to divert the conversation into another direction, but that’s the best Peeta could think of right now.

 

“It’s no fun in there,” Elise pouts and slumps her shoulders, but she gives in eventually. “Oookay. I’ll go back.”

 

Before she can run away from their sight, Katniss grabs her hand and stands up. “We’ll walk with you.” Jumping up and down in excitement, Elise leads the way. She skips down the hall and stops in front of the same reception room they were trying to escape earlier.

 

“Elise, your auntie got married today?” Peeta asks.

 

“Yep! Auntie Madge and my new uncle Gale,” she grins. Her eye must catch someone she knew or something because soon Elise is running into the ballroom. The crowd seems to have diminished a bit, compared to the crowded chaos it was an hour ago.

 

They awkwardly stand in the entrance. “So, did you want to go back to that other room we were in?” Peeta suggests.

 

“Actually, I think we should stay here.” Katniss walks a couple steps into the room. “Dance with me.”

 

Taking his hand into hers, she guides them to the middle of the room. They push between drunk couples, leaning against each other for support, and stop at the middle of the floor. The song is slow. She wraps her arms around his neck and Peeta coils his around her waist. They sway back and forth comfortably. Suddenly, it felt like they were the only ones in the room to Peeta. All his attention focused on the beautiful girl dancing in front of him.

 

“I never thanked you for tonight,” Katniss huskily breathes out. Her index finger trails up the nape of his neck, up into his hair, and it sends shivers down his spine. “You spent all night with me when you could’ve been here, having a good time. I bet you had a pretty date too.”

 

“Nope,” he shakes his head and chuckles. “No date, and you were the perfect company tonight. I had fun.”

 

She drops her head heavily onto his shoulder. Peeta can smell her coconut-scented shampoo. He can feel her breathing against his neck, in and out. His heart thumps rapidly again. Her arms cling onto him harder, tightening their grasp. At first he thinks she might be crying again when her head is buried so deeply against him. But when the wetness that touches his neck isn’t her tears, but her tongue and mouth planting kisses, he groans in surprise.

 

She kisses her way up his neck, to his jaw, to the corner of his mouth, and then their lips touch. His mouth overlaps hers, capturing her bottom lip and sucking on it gently. It tastes vaguely like a fruity chapstick mixed with a hint of champagne. The kiss is deep and passionate. It builds a warm sensation through Peeta’s body and spreads out everywhere. When she releases her lips from his, their noses brush around each other.

 

“Katniss, your…” Peeta stutters, trying to regain his senses. “Your rule?”

 

She looks at him with a satisfied smirk. “Change. We’ve all got to adapt to it, right?”

 

“Right,” he nods, encouraging her decision.

 

“So, why don’t we see where our wedding goggles take us?” Katniss tugs on his arm towards the exit. She walks hastily, hurrying to get out of the building. Once they reach the stairway, Peeta stops abruptly to slow down.

 

“We don’t have to rush this,” he reminds her gently and leans down for another slow, long kiss.

 

Inhaling a deep breath through her nose, Katniss closes her eyes in meditated thought. When she opens them again, she agrees. They walk hand in hand down the steps, taking their time.

 

“By the way, how do you know Madge?” she asks curiously. “Since I’ve never seen you before, I assume you weren’t Gale’s guest.”

 

Peeta runs his hand through his blond hair, messily tousling the gelled strands out of place. “Well, I wasn’t exactly Madge’s guest….”

 

“Oh my god. You came as someone’s plus one? You left that poor girl alone!” Katniss raises her voice and her face brightens into an angry shade of pink.

 

“No, no! I didn’t, I swear. I wouldn’t lie to you about that,” he’s quick to clear up the misunderstanding. The last thing Peeta needed was the girl he liked to think he just abandoned his date.

 

“Then?” She purses her lips and arches her brow, waiting for an explanation.

 

“Ah, fuck it,” Peeta mumbles to himself. He smiles sheepishly before talking again. “I technically wasn’t invited because… I’m the baker and I made their wedding cake.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you dandelion-sunset for being my beta. Your editing always seems to make everything I write a million times better <3  
> This story was very slightly based off of HIMYM, the episode where Ted meets Victoria. 
> 
> This piece of work is dedicated for ellembee (andthisisthewonder) for her wedding. The flower girl, Elise, is named after my wonderful friend.


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